Irish actor, Emmett Scanlan walked away with the Best Film Actor Award at the recent ECU European Independent Film Festival for his performance in Independent Irish feature, ‘Charlie Casanova’. Written, produced and directed by Terry McMahon, Charlie Casanova had its European Premiere in Paris where it was the only Irish film selected for the Best European Dramatic Feature competition and Emmett Scanlan is the first Irish actor to win this award.

The film - written, produced and directed by Terry McMahon - stars Emmett Scanlan (Hollyoaks, The Guards), Leigh Arnold (The Clinic), Damien Hannaway (The Guards), Ruth McIntyre (Shackled), Tony Murphy, Valeria Bandino (The Doppleganger) and Johnny Elliott. It details the spiraling events of a ruling class sociopath who knocks down a working class girl in a hit-and-run and uses a deck of playing cards to determine his fate. ‘Charlie Casanova’ shot in Dublin in January 2010 with Eoin Macken (Christian Blake) as director of photography and Tony Kearns (Last Night) as editor. It received completion funding from the Irish Film Board earlier this year.

‘Charlie Casanova’ had its World Premiere in Austin, Texas last month at the SXSW Film Festival, where it was the first non-American film selected for the Narrative Feature Competition in six years and the first Irish film ever selected for the competition. Recently selected for the Independent Film Festival in Krakow, Poland, ‘Charlie Casanova’ will compete for the coveted Off Camera Plus Award and will simultaneously screen at The Indie Spirit Film Festival in Colorado Springs.